Can't Upload New ASA Image (I/O Error)

Question

I'm trying to upgrade the code on a fresh, out of the box Cisco ASA 5510. However, whenever I transfer the code via TFTP I get the following message -

Writing file disk0:asa847-k8.bin...

%Error writing disk0:asa847-k8.bin (I/O error)

When I run the dir command -

Directory of disk0:/

4      drwx  4096        00:03:28 Jan 01 2003  .private
104    -rwx  15390720    06:13:14 Apr 29 2013  asa825-k8.bin
105    -rwx  16280544    08:07:02 Apr 29 2013  asdm-645.bin
106    -rwx  28672       00:00:00 Jan 01 1980  FSCK0000.REC
3      drwx  4096        00:02:54 Jan 01 2003  log
10     drwx  4096        00:03:06 Jan 01 2003  crypto_archive
11     drwx  4096        00:03:10 Jan 01 2003  coredumpinfo
107    drwx  4096        08:07:12 Apr 29 2013  boot
108    -rwx  4096        00:00:00 Jan 01 1980  FSCK0001.REC
109    -rwx  12998641    08:03:26 Apr 29 2013  csd_3.5.2008-k9.pkg
2      drwx  4096        08:04:16 Apr 29 2013  csco_config
110    drwx  4096        08:03:28 Apr 29 2013  sdesktop
111    -rwx  6487517     08:04:04 Apr 29 2013  anyconnect-macosx-i386-2.5.2014-k9.pkg
112    -rwx  6689498     08:04:12 Apr 29 2013  anyconnect-linux-2.5.2014-k9.pkg
113    -rwx  4678691     08:04:16 Apr 29 2013  anyconnect-win-2.5.2014-k9.pkg
115    -rwx  6326        10:02:44 Feb 20 2014  oldconfig_2014Feb20_1725.cfg

No space information available

The No space information available is kind of concerning. Is it possible the disk is bad? Anyone experience this issue before? Any tips or troubleshooting steps to get around this?

Answer 1

As mentioned in the comments; The Cisco Support Forums suggest there might be something corrupt with disk0. Since this is a new setup, (optionally) backup the contents, and reformat:

ASA(config)#format disk0:
Format operation may take a while. Continue? [confirm] y 

Then upload your new image (e.g. TFTP):

ASA(config)#copy tftp disk0:

Answer 2

Either the CF card is damaged or the filesystem is corrupt. Note, the 5510 has two CF cards; one external, and one internal. The internal one is where the platform license information is stored, so if you erase it, make sure you have your activation key. (the asa will not show you those files, btw)

They're both FAT formatted, so any windows (or DOS) machine should be able to read them. I'd suggest pulling them to make a backup before attempting to erase them.

Finally, some CF cards have a little switch to write-protect them. Check that it isn't in the WP mode.